In many cases, a pharmacy customer will order a prescription refill in advance of his or her visit to the pharmacy to pick up the refill. In other cases, a prescription for an initial supply may, for example, have already been called in by the customer's doctor. Generally, the customer's order will then be filled, packaged, and stored until the customer visits the pharmacy to pick up the order.
To make the prescription pickup and payment process more convenient for the customer, some pharmacies have implemented drive-thru prescription pickup services. Drive-thru prescription pickup services typically allow a customer to remain in his vehicle while being serviced at a drive-thru window to pick up his prescription. The drive-thru pickup process generally involves the customer communicating with pharmacy staff using a speaker and microphone located outside of the pharmacy at the start of a drive-thru lane. Once the pharmacy staff receives the customer information by speaking to the customer, the pharmacy staff may fill the prescription order, wait until the vehicle pulls up near a drive-thru window, hand the customer his prescription order, and process the payment.
However, conventional drive-thru systems often suffer from inefficiencies since several may be in line in a drive-thru lane at the same time. Because some prescriptions may take longer to fill than others, pharmacy staff may need to rush to fill larger prescription orders at the expense of making other customers in line wait longer to receive their prescriptions. In addition, traditional drive-thru prescription pickup services receive customer information and prescription order information by speaking to each customer as she pulls through the drive-thru lane. This interaction further slows the pickup process, as time is needed to enter each customer's information, lookup their prescription information, and locate the prescription order.
As a result, streamlining the drive-thru prescription pickup process may provide additional convenience for customers but also presents several challenges.